


you should be loving someone

by orphan_account



Category: Phan, Youtubers, dan and phil
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - Music, M/M, Social Anxiety, author phil and musician dan
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-07-11
Updated: 2019-07-31
Packaged: 2020-06-26 11:04:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,035
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19766881
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: Daniel Howell is a musician on break from touring for a few months. He’s staying in London and just trying to relax and be alone before going on the next tour stretch. When he meets Phil Lester, a children’s book author looking for a change, he’s not so sure that he wants to stay alone.(Title from “Loving Someone” by The 1975)





	1. Chapter 1

Daniel Howell is tired. He’s tired of touring, tired of being treated like a child by his manager, tired of being alone. He needs a break, which is why he’s currently locked outside the flat he’s staying in for a few months, trying to figure out how the key is supposed to work.

Dan’s hands are shaking and he can’t slot the key into the door like it’s supposed to. He slams his other hand against the door and groans.

“How the hell is this supposed to be relaxing if I can’t even get into my flat?”

“Have you tried turning the key the other way?”

Dan looks around and spots the man who spoke. He’s leaning against the wall with a big smile, arms crossed like he’s trying to look intimidating. Unfortunately for him, the mario shirt and curl mess also known as his hair kept him from looking intimidating at all. The guy walks towards Dan, taking the key and leaning down a little before unlocking the door and opening it with ease.

“You unlocked it! Thank you so much...?”

“PJ. Me and my roommate Phil live in the flat next door,” he points towards the door on the left. “And you are?”

Dan is so shocked that PJ doesn’t know who he is that he freezes for a second. “I’m uh... I’m Dan.”

PJ holds out a hand and Dan takes it, shaking it awkwardly for a moment.

“Well, it’s a pleasure to meet you, new neighbor Dan. Now I have to go back and try to keep Phil from stealing all my cereal while I’m gone, but I’m sure I’ll see you around.” He waves and walks back to his flat and Dan nods before grabbing his suitcase from the hall and walking into his own.

Dan’s flat has a simple floor plan and seems decently nice for the price he’s paying to rent it. It’s simply furnished, which is a relief because Dan really didn’t bring much with him. He still wants to go get some more shelves and decor, but he’s willing to stick with what’s here for a little while.

Dan tosses his suitcase in the corner of the bedroom and settles on the couch with his laptop. He might be able to scroll for a while before his manager calls to complain. Minutes into the couch-and-tumblr session, the phone goes off and Dan knows he just jinxed himself. He ignores it and waits until there’s a voicemail to avoid talking on the phone.

“Hello, Danny! I hope you’re still thinking about staying in LA instead of London? You will need to come back to LA in a few months and it would be so much easier if you were here already-”

Dan pauses the voicemail and shakes his head. Ryan, his manager, just wants Dan to stay in LA so she can schedule more publicity events for him. The last event was a signing at a music store and Dan had to leave early because his hands were shaking and his heart was pounding and he couldn’t handle any more. That was only a couple days before he left for London, and Dan really didn’t want to go through something like that again for a long time. He left for London because he had lived here before and loved it, but mostly he just wanted to be far away from his manager and all the struggles LA brought. Okay, so running away from everything might not have been the wisest choice, but it seemed like the best option to Dan.

Now that he was in London and didn’t have anything he had to do, Dan was ready to just relax and take a break from fans and expectations and everything else. He could just relax or try working on music without a deadline. It was exciting, the realization that he had nothing he had to do for months and had enough money to do anything he actually wanted to do. For now though, he was content just scrolling on his laptop. His fans would understand that he needed a break, right?

The next few days passed by really quickly for only having gone outside twice, but Dan wasn’t going to complain. He hasn’t run into any fans yet, which isn’t surprising since he’s barely left his flat. He knows he’ll inevitably run into people who recognize him, but he’s trying to avoid it for as long as he possibly can. If he just never leaves his flat, then he’ll be fine. Of course, he knows this won’t work in the long run because he does need groceries and some amount of social interaction.

Dan let’s out a sigh and sets down his laptop so he can get up and go get some coffee. As much as he wants to hide out, he definitely feels like he needs to go on a long walk with a warm drink. He walks out into the hallway and makes sure he has the essentials before going down the hall to the elevator. He pauses for a moment after hearing loud shouting coming from PJ’s flat. He debated walking away and ignoring it but his stomach flips. He casually walks toward their door, just to make sure it wasn’t anything bad.

“... How could you do that? You shoved me off the raceway!”

”You just hate to lose at mario kart!”

Dan laughs once he realized PJ and who must be his flatmate were just playing mario kart and shook his head. Realistically, he knows that he also yells during video games, but he’s chosen to ignore that fact. He’s never been the one to randomly hear adults yell about video games before and he’s honestly a little weirded out and makes a mental note to try not to yell the next time he plays any games.

When Dan finally exits the building, the street is busy. He has to avoid so many toddlers walking with their parents that he really wishes he hadn’t left his flat. It seems like a never ending amount and he’s so happy to finally step inside a starbucks where the only child is a baby-faced guy nearby. 

“I’ll help whoever’s next!”

Dan quickly orders and avoids eye contact with the barista ringing him up. She squeals after a moment and he could swear his heart stops, but she was just excited that her boyfriend walked in behind him. 

Dan let out a nervous little chuckle and walks away, pulling out a huge pair of sunglasses and slipping them on.

”Oh my god! Daniel Howell?!” A girl nearby is frozen in spot staring at him and Dan’s fight-or-flight kicks in, causing him to grab his coffee and sprint out of the coffeehouse.

Dan spins around a lamppost and it seems like he’s in the clear until he crashes into someone (about his height, he really should’ve seen them) and they both topple to the ground, spilling coffee everywhere. 

Dan and the unlucky person he crashed into are tangled on the ground for a moment before realizing what happened. Dan slowly gets to his feet and offers a hand to the poor guy he crashed into.

”I’m so sorry. I wasn’t watching where I was going and spilled coffee all over you and-”

”Hey, it’s alright! I mean, I could go for a change of clothes, but other than that there’s no harm done,” he accepts Dan’s hand and hops up to his feet. “I’m Phil.”

”Dan.”


	2. Chapter 2

After the whole coffee-incident, Dan is ready to hide out at home for the next year. He left Phil immediately after they introduced themselves and has felt a little guilty about it, but didn’t want to have to face anyone else who could recognize him. He had only stopped to grab some necessities from a grocery store (yes, ice cream really is a necessity) before going back to his flat to avoid human conctact.

He hides out for nearly a week but finally goes back for coffee. He’s been productive with music and there’s a reward-coffee break, right? The promise of coffee is good, but it makes his anxiety spike as he thinks about how many people could be there. Damn, he really wants that coffee. He makes up his mind and leaves quickly before he can talk himself out of it.

The starbucks he went to last time is empty and Dan’s nerves fade slightly but not enough to truly feel comfortable. He orders his coffee and sits at the table in the far corner, back to the door. If anyone were to walk in, he doubts they’d be able to tell it was him. 

Dan closes his eyes and breathes in the coffee smell as an attempt to calm down all the way. It actually helps a fair amount. 

About an hour later, Dan is out of coffee and has a bunch of random lyrics floating around on his brain. He smiles to himself as he gets up and resists the urge to start trying to sing some of the lyrics he’s working on. 

He nearly walks into someone... no, he recognizes the black quiff. He nearly walks into _Phil_ again as he turns toward the door. They brush shoulders and Dan is narrowly avoiding crashing into him but at least he’s not falling on top of him this time. 

“Oh, Dan! I thought I kinda recognized you, but it was hard to tell from the back of your head.”

Dan takes a step toward the door, debating ignoring Phil, but decides to stay and talk. Phil was nice enough. 

“You never let me get you a replacement coffee,” Phil tilts his head as he looks at Dan and it’s almost unsettling how analytic his gaze his. “You ran off before I had the chance to offer it then, but can I buy you a coffee?”

”What? You mean right now?”

”Unless you’re busy. But yeah, I’d like to get to know the mysterious Dan that ran me over.”

Dan chews on his lip, trying to figure out a good excuse not to. “I can’t now because I have some work to take care of, but maybe we’ll run into each other again?”

Phil seems to deflate a bit and Dan almost changes his mind just to cheer him up. 

“Yeah... maybe. But the next time I see you, you have to promise to get a coffee with me. Even if it is at some weird time.”

”Alright, it’s a deal.”

Phil smiles and Dan takes this as his cue to leave. He nods and heads to the door, pausing to turn back and give an awkward salute before he walks out. Phil grins and waves back.

Back at his flat, Dan is trying to track down a studio he can record at, since the one he typically uses is back in LA. There are a fair amount of options, but the one that’s really caught his eye is like an artistic dreamland. It’s part studio space and work area, part publishing house, and part art gallery. ‘London Calls’ seems perfect, but almost too perfect. A little skeptical, Dan leaves a tab open to their website to look at later. He has a pretty solid idea for a song and wants to record a demo of it but he’s fine with waiting until he has a few more songs put together. 

Being in London has been really helpful for his music, but Dan can’t help but feel like it was a mistake to leave LA. He had a permanent house there, a recording studio he knew he could trust, friends. He missed it. Even if being away from all that was what he desperately needed. Pressing his temples, he tried to ward off negative thoughts. London was a good choice, he’s gotten more done in two weeks than he had in two months in LA. He just had to try to be a little less self-deprecating about his music (like that would ever actually happen). 

Going back to London Calls’ tab on his laptop, he pulls up the phone number for the studio managers and decides to ask about recording.


End file.
